BCL Books - Local Books - Melbourne & Victoria

Local Books - Melbourne and Victoria

It's always fun reading books from your local area - there's a familiarity to the people and the places that can make the books even more enjoyable. It's also interesting when travelling to read books set in or about the places you're visiting - just keep in mind most of them are fiction.

Below are local books for Melbourne and Victoria including Autobiographies / Biographies, Historical books (books set in or written pre-1940s) and Contemporary books.
 

Autobiography / Biography

• One Brief Interval - by Sir Edward Woodward - Autobiography about his life growing up in Melbourne, his legal career, being head of ASIO, and his work as Chancellor of Melbourne University.
   
• Ursula Frayne: A Biography - by Catherine Kovesi Killerby - Biography of Ursula Frayne who led a small group of the Sisters of Mercy in the late 1800s that helped underprivileged people in Melbourne and Perth.
     

Historical Fiction & Non-Fiction

• Melbourne Then and Now - by Heather Chapman & Judith Stillman - Non-fiction book of photography comparing historical Melbourne to the Melbourne of the 2000s.
   
• My Brother Jack by George Johnston - Semi-autobiographical novel about two brothers growing up in Melbourne suburbia during World War I and the different paths their lives take. Winner of the Miles Franklin Award in 1964.
   
• Picnic at Hanging Rock - by Joan Lindsay - Set in 1900, the novel tells the story of a group of schoolgirls who go on an excursion to Hanging Rock in the Mount Macedon area. Three of the girls and a schoolteacher who climb the rock mysteriously disappear.
     
• The Fortunes of Richard Mahony - by Henry Handel Richardson - Three-part novel set in the Ballarat goldfields region about the life of Richard Mahony and his family.
   
• The Gilded Cage, The Burnt City, and The Trumpeting Angel - by Marshall Browne - Trilogy of historical novels set in Melbourne in the 1880s about greed, corruption, and love. Written between 1992 and 2000.
   

Contemporary Fiction & Non-Fiction

• Blood Sunset - by Jarad Henry - Set in St Kilda, this gritty novel is about the death of a young boy from a presumed accidental overdose and the detective who tries to find out the truth. Published in 2008.
   
• Leadbelly: Inside Australia's Underworld Wars - by Andrew Rule and John Silvester - Non-fiction book written by journalists from The Age about the Melbourne gangland wars between 1995 and 2004. Made into a TV series called Underbelly.
   
• Loaded by Christos Tsiolkas - Set in suburban Melbourne this novel is about a young Greek-Australian gay man coming to terms with his identity. Published in 1996 and made into a film called Head On.
   
• Monkey Grip - by Helen Garner - Set in the inner city suburbs of Melbourne in the 1970s, this novel tells the story of a woman and the man she falls in love with who is a heroin addict.
   
• Stiff, The Brush-Off, The Big Ask, Nice Try, Something Fishy, Sucked In - by Shane Maloney - Series of crime books set in Melbourne in the 1980s and 1990s featuring the character Murray Whelan, a Labor party advisor/member of the Victorian Parliament who also solves crimes.
     
• Three Dollars - by Elliot Perlman - Set in Melbourne in the 1990s, this novel focuses on the main character's seemingly successful suburban life. Winner of The Age Book of the Year Award. Shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award in 1999.
   
• Wasp Season by Jennifer Scoullar - Thriller set in Melbourne about a woman, her estranged husband, and his girlfriend that looks at the dramas of the wasps in the woman's garden as much as it does the dramas in their lives.
   

More Local Books

• Adelaide and South Australia
• Brisbane and Queensland
• Darwin and the Northern Territory
• Hobart and Tasmania
• Perth and Western Australia
• Sydney, Canberra, and New South Wales